


Seventeen Days

by writingandchocolatemilk



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Gen, Historical, OC
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-20
Updated: 2015-05-20
Packaged: 2018-03-31 09:20:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3972583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writingandchocolatemilk/pseuds/writingandchocolatemilk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dying was an interesting feeling. It was not one Carthage would recommend. </p><p>He watched on his knees, hands tied behind him, as the Romans flooded his city, dragging out his people. They were bashed and families were torn apart, and they were <i>screaming</i>.</p><p>Then again, he had been dying for years now. Rome had it in for him ever since the second war ended. After all, a nation wasn’t a nation without autonomy, was it? Rome had already taken him over.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Seventeen Days

**Author's Note:**

> OC contained within.

Dying was an interesting feeling. It was not one Carthage would recommend. 

He watched on his knees, hands tied behind him, as the Romans flooded his city, dragging out his people. They were bashed and families were torn apart, and they were _screaming_.

Then again, he had been dying for years now. Rome had it in for him ever since the second war ended. After all, a nation wasn’t a nation without autonomy, was it? Rome had already taken him over. 

Carthage was feeling very calm about the whole thing until the Romans pulled out the fire. Something about the flames made Carthage want to lash out and stop them. 

And there he was. Rome stood, hands on his hips, watching as his soldiers dragged away people or slaughtered them. His back was strong, like Carthage’s had been fifty years ago, before the fines had drained him. 

The first house was ignited, and Carthage screamed and tried to stagger upwards, only to be shoved down by a nearby soldier. Carthage snarled, wrenching his arms back and forth, attempting to rip himself free of the bonds.

“It should be _you_!” Carthage screamed. 

Rome’s head turned slightly. “Me?”

“You should be the one burning!” Carthage kicked at a nearby guard, staggering up. He was allowed closer when Rome raised his hand, stopping his soldiers. Carthage neared, arms red and stinging. “It should be _you_!” he hissed.

Rome laughed, still not turning fully toward Carthage. Another building went up in flames, and Carthage’s legs shook. They wouldn’t burn the farmland—that’s why they attacked in the first place. But they would destroy his city. 

“You don’t have to do this,” Carthage tried, taking a step closer. “Please, I’ve been good, haven’t I? I would do the same for you, had…”

Had that attacked not _failed_. Had those damned elephants made it through the mountains and smashed Rome to the ground like they should have. So many dead, and Rome was still standing there, giving him a pitying look.

“I didn’t lose. I’m never going to lose.”

The flames were catching. It felt as though Carthage was a piece of silk being shredded, slowly and deliberately, the fibers of his being pulled apart. He was having trouble thinking. It was like the last decades condensed. 

“It could be you,” Carthage said, falling to his knees. “I could have won. And then you would be the one burning. You couldn’t just _leave_ me.”

“’Carthage must be destroyed,’” Rome quoted, finally turning towards him. 

Carthage laughed, whatever he was going to say scattering from his thoughts. “I won’t be gone. You still have my people. I’ll still be around.” 

Someone screamed nearby, and Carthage wanted to cry. He wanted to cry at the unfairness, at the past three years, at the fear of becoming nothing. He had lost Iberia, now he was losing himself. Where did his people go when they died?

Rome squatted in front of him, gripping his chin and forcing Carthage to look at him. “You won’t be around. Your people will be sent to the fields to die out under the sun. And then my people, _my_ people, will live in your precious fields.”

Carthage’s eyes couldn’t focus. He wondered if it was blood or tears running down his cheeks. He wondered how long his city would burn. Distantly, he remembered the nice family he was staying with, the little girl who could barely walk and who brought him household items. 

Rome tilted Carthage’s head, examining the cheekbones and the pallor of his skin. The scars, the missing fingers from Iberia. And then Rome tossed him away.

Carthage curled into the dust and lost himself. He screamed as buildings collapsed on themselves and his people were thrown into chains. It was nothing but flames and sobbing. Somewhere in his mind, Carthage wondered how long Rome would let him suffer. 

**Author's Note:**

> Carthage was one of Rome’s enemies during the early days of the empire. Carthage was actually larger than Rome, and the two of them were pretty evenly matched. 
> 
> Rome and Carthage had the three Punic Wars. the first was over Sicily, and the second were both initiated by Rome. 
> 
> The Second Punic War decimated Carthage’s military. Rome fined them heavily for fifty years, and took over almost all governing for the empire. Border disputes, for instance, were never in Carthage’s favor. Carthage also wasn’t allowed to raise an army on its own.
> 
> For most of the war, Carthage was banking heavily on moving through the Alps and attacking the city of Rome from the north and south with elephants. Thousands of men died during the trek, which failed anyways.
> 
> The next fifty years had Rome conquering other nearby territories. However, they still wanted to destroy Carthage. Cato the Elder was a particular proponent of this, ending all of his speeches with ‘Carthage must be destroyed.’ So, Rome waged war.
> 
> During the Third Punic War, where this story takes place, Rome laid siege to Carthage for three years before the city finally fell. Rome burned the city to the ground and took the fifty-thousand remaining citizens and forced them into slavery. 
> 
> Carthage’s land surrounding the city were given to the public to farm. Carthage’s city was eventually rebuilt, but Carthage was sort of wiped off of the map. Too bad, considering it was the only empire that could have given Rome a run for its money.


End file.
